Just Kiss Me Already
by genieforyourworld
Summary: AU/ Going back to school needed to be perfect. But with a lovesick best friend as my aide, do I really need a boyfriend to be who everyone expects me to be? To be who I want to be? Might as well get Shikamaru to help me. After all, he's smart. /ShikaIno/
1. Prologue

****

Disclaimer: I do not now or never will own Naruto...unless I put my plan to kidnap Kishimoto into action sometime soon i.e. never

* * *

_J u s t_ **K i s s** _M e_ **A l r e a d y**

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**--**

**prologue**

**-- **

**x. number one .x**

_Perfect make up_

Check

**x. number two .x**

_Awesome hair style_

Check

**x. number three .x**

_Unique outfit made up of fabrics and accessories that shouldn't go but do _

Check

**x. number four .x**

_Hot pink Ipod nano jam packed of all the latest tunes that everyone loves_

Check

**x. number five .x**

_Glamorously decorated fresh new notebooks_ _that stick out from the crowd_

Check

**x. number six .x**

_A jaw-dropping new car courtesy of "daddy's" credit card_

Chec_k_

**x. number seven .x**

_One cute and crazy best friend, with her own style and not yours, you haven't seen in weeks_

Check

**x. number eight .x**

_Two awesome chicks who know everything there is to know about you_

Check

**x. number nine .x**

_Head spot on the cheerleading squad, a shoe-in for being crowned prom queen_

Check

**x. number ten .x**

_A gorgeous piece of man candy, that makes every girl envy and want to be you, hanging off of your arm that is up to the challenge of doing anything and everything for you_

Um...yeah...sure?

(That means no...

_...help!!!_)

**High school:** noun

_The society that resembles the wild tropic Amazon jungles, only not as easy to survive in due to antisocial idiots, "Me! Me! Me's!," jocks/players/assholes, "I hate life" whiners, busty bitches who 'think' the sun revolves around them (obviously they have never opened a science text book in their pathetic lives), Sasuke Uchiha, perverted teachers, three sort of sane girls and the amazing Sakura Haruno._

_Rock and Roll, baby. _

_That's how it goes. _

**--**

Sakura?

_Yeah?_

Have you been drinking caffeine at four in the morning again?

_I was at three, why?_

Where did this crap come from?

_Hey, just because you're failing English and lack a creative aspect in your brain..._

* * *

When September rolled around, everything was supposed to be perfect.

After spending three disastrously annoying months over the summer holidays away with my mom and new stepdad, I could finally get back to the [second prison] I belonged in.

Watch out suckers, Ino Yamanaka is back.

That morning as I was picking out a decent pair of shoes from my new collection, my BFF decided to send me her latest DIY project to heal her boredom, some wacked out crazy list of high school survival points and an incredibly accurate definition of _high school _itself.

I had to admit, she had a point, the nerd.

Everything was fine until I reached the tenth point. A_ boyfriend_. That bitch.

Sure I had dated guys, kissed guys and wasn't exactly as pure as the day I was born (I was drunk, get with the program), but I never really had a guy who would _"do anything and everything for me." _Not like Sakura or Tenten.

Because that's not how I (didn't) roll. Times change though, I suppose.

Oh my gawd, kami help me.

--

When I pulled up in the school parking lot I thankfully saw the person who I wanted to castrate the most at the present time.

Yet despite my natural height added with my cute heels, I could not reach up to yank at my best friend due to the fact that she was sitting on the roof of a car that was not hers. To make matters worse she didn't even see me or hear me because she had her headphones in her ears, blaring some Paramore song or something while her pretty sea green eyes were glued to one of them vampire novels causing loose strands of her shoulder length pink hair to block out reality.

"FOREHEAD WILL YOU LISTEN TO ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!"

I watched her sigh, drop one earphone, shut her book with a slam (she really doesn't know her own strength) and look up ready to yell at whatever loser had disturbed her (she doesn't get her own temper either).

Instead when her eyes met mine she grinned and jumped down landing flawlessly beside me.

"Hey Pig! So how was the vacation...eek!" She ducked out the way as I swung my bag at her. Curse her reflexes.

"How was my vacation?" I fumed. "I spent three months watching my mom make out with that dick on the beach, and when I call my best mate to try and get away from it, I find out she's out getting it on with some idiot in the back of his broken down pick-up truck!"

"Hey! When your stuck in the middle of nowhere miles from civilization with your hot boyfriend of the past three years who you've known since you were in diapers, at night listening to nothing but Taylor Swift songs after your best friend had been trying to get a hold of you – watch the car, Ino – for the whole day, then you can whack your pretty, expensive, designer purse at me!"

"I didn't get a word you just said," I took another swing at her. "Will you stand still?" I shrieked. I hate that she knows martial arts.

"Sasuke's borrowing the car from his brother until the truck is fixed. Watch that thing will ya! If it gets hit then we're taking you down too when we get in trouble..."

"Sakura!" I growled.

"Someone stop her!"

"And another thing! Please keep your _amazing_ creative writing skills to yourself."

I managed to calm down then, making her stop running too. She's a real chicken when she wants to be.

Sakura started giggling then and stuck her tongue out at me. "Your sarcasm kills me."

"Forehead!"

"Shit." And she was gone a fast as lightening. Probably to find lover-boy.

It wasn't that I was jealous or anything. No way. I mean we've been best friends since we were like six. I would never do anything like _that_ to her.

Maybe she had a point with the whole boyfriend thing. But knowing Sakura, she most likely had a thousand different meanings behind each of her silly (intelligent) points.

Sigh.

Might as well go and find my other single buddy, Hinata, because apparently Tenten hooked up with Neji Hyuuga. Finally.

Or pretty little ol' me can find my other besties. The ones who actually listen and care about me and my girl issues. Yes Shikamaru and Chouji. I don't know what I'd do without them.

I just hope that Shikamaru ditched that sand girl already.

Urgh. I think I feel the vomit in my throat. What a great way to begin the year.

_Wait._ Hang on.

R E W I N E D.

I mean, it's not like he's dating her or anything, right. Because I've known him longer than I have Sakura, and he would tell me if he even _liked_ her.

Wow, I sound like some crazy fangirl.

But hey, all I'm doing is looking out for my friend. Right?

_I think._

* * *

**Just a quick prologue to begin. ShikaIno action in chapter one, coming soon.**

**Let me know what you think.**

**xx**

**SharinganAngel93**

* * *


	2. Those Troublesome Days

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

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_J u s t_ **K i s s** _M e_ **A l r e a d y**

* * *

**chapter 1:**

**those **_**troublesome**_** days**

So then he's like "Yeah, whatever. See you later."

_Okay._

And I'm like "You lazy bum, get back here and listen to me!"

_Alright._

So then he just walks off like that, muttering something...

"_Troublesome woman?"_

How did you know that?

_-sigh- Ino it was a lucky guess. _

You're not very funny.

_I'm not trying to be._

Sasuke's beside you isn't he?

_No, Naruto actually. Sasuke-kun went to find an ice-pack._

Hinata-chan faint again?

_Jackpot._

* * *

_Everyone_ knew my name.

Even though I hung out with a freak, a tomboy and the quietest person in the universe, plus I grew up with a fat ass and a lazy ass.

So it wasn't a surprise when near enough every person I walked past while looking for said fat ass and lazy ass said "hi" to me. And to be honest, I didn't remember or recognise a single one of them, save for Kiba and Lee. But they're more Tenten and Hinata's friends, plus Lee was Sakura's "stalker" as lover-boy put it.

After my quick greetings, hitting Dog-boy over the head for giving some _constructive criticism_ on my perfume choice, and telling Lee that Forehead was looking for him (payback's a bitch), I continued my scouting for the two people I love more than I do shopping.

It wasn't long when I found them sitting on the bleachers, while Naruto, Sasuke, Neji and Tenten were messing around with a football, while Sakura and Hinata sat on the side of the pitch. Damn, Lee hadn't found her yet and to make things worse, with Lover-boy there the action wouldn't last too long. Then he's Neji's problem.

Being evil can be really fun sometimes, you know.

"Yo, my homies!" I called out as I started climbing the rows. Chouji was (unsurprisingly) stuffing his face with a bag of chips and Shikamaru stretched out staring up at the early morning sky, properly upset by the lack of clouds. I rolled my eyes at how unenthusiastic they were to see me.

Freaks. I mean _moi_! They should be bowing at my gorgeous red painted toes and my fabulous heels.

"Ino please don't talk like that again. It's too troublesome." How nice, I came to see if he was still safe from that sand girl, who he met at some basketball game when he was supposed to be watching _me_ do my thing – head cheerleader is supposed to have every guy's eyes on her, and he criticizes me for having some fun. I'd show him troublesome if I didn't spend a fortune on a decent manicure yesterday. So instead I just stuck my tongue out at him, sitting down between them.

"So...Ino...how much...did it...cost?" Chouji asked between bites. Eew.

"How much did what cost?" My shoes? My hair? My necklace? My nails?

"You know...your..." He mumbled the last part as if fearing for his dear life.

"I can't hear you. Say that again Chouji, kami blessed you with a mouth."

Shikamaru gave a small amused chuckle causing me to raise an eyebrow in confusion.

I looked back at Chouji – I could swear he was turning blue.

"Howmuchdidyournosejobcost?" Unfortunately for him, I have ears like a bat, not a thing about anybody escapes my knowledge in this pit of a school.

"WHAT!"

Everyone in and around the running track turned my way as I felt the colour rise in my cheeks.

Now I was a very dramatic person, I used to get the lead in the play every year, but my temper was boiling so high by now that I could practically feel the steam escaping my ears.

"I DID NOT," my voice was at such a high pitch I'm sure only dogs could me (see, I'm not as dumb as people make me out to be), "GET A NOSE JOB!"

High school rumours could be a real pain in the backside – _especially_ when they were about _you_.

I _ignored_ Chouji shitting himself, I ignored Sakura's roar of laughter, I ignored all the stares of my annoying peers, I..._urgh!_

I could _not_ – emphasise on the not – believe it! (_Curse_ you Naruto)

I mean, what did I do to disserve _this!_

I was going to get to the bottom of this predicament right now. Screw Shikamaru's 'love' life.

"Told you so..."

Screw that lazy bastard. And I was about to give him a good scolding, one hell of a telling off, going to-

"SAKURA-SAN MY YOUTHFUL BLOSSOM!!"

_Damn._ I wanted to enjoy her pain not wallow in my own.

* * *

I didn't stick around to witness Lee get his first black eye of the school year (the first of many since we were twelve and Sasuke lost to him in some _martial arts,_ if you could call it that, contest thing. It was more like one of mine and Karin's bitch fights if you ask me).

I skipped first period with the excuse of my own personal, awkward cough, 'feminine problems.'

A complete lie obviously.

Instead of going to the nurse like I promised I was, I sat in the girls' bathroom reapplying my ruined make-up. Stupid frown lines.

After debating the pros and cons of actually going to biology, I trudged down the empty halls five minutes before the bell and strode perfectly into the empty classroom. Not even the teacher was there yet. I didn't even bother checking who my teacher was.

Taking out my crisp clean perfect sheet of paper with my schedule printed on in plain simple font. It wouldn't be too long before it was covered in bright rainbow and neon colours, doused in coffee stains and crumpled at the edges from where it would be stuffed deep into the darkest pits of my school bag.

_OMG! _I mentally screamed as my baby blue orbs scanned the sheet that was dying for a makeover. Jiraiya was my teacher. _Again_. Someone up there really hated me today. How did that pervert ever get a licence to teach, pretty not-so-little girls like me.

"This is so troublesome."

I turned to look to my left and literally jumped out of my seat.

"Holy crap, don't do that!" How the hell did I not see him (and a dozen other depressed students) come in.

"Ino maybe you need to get your eyes checked rather than fuss about your nose," Shikamaru said putting up that stupid, annoying, lazy smirk.

"Oh shut up," I huffed turning away from him.

After a little while, (okay, okay, as soon as he walked in the door) I got bored of that pathetic excuse for a man's lesson. Sighing, I turned back to face Shikamaru who was slouching in his chair not bothering to answer the questions we were assigned. Seriously, why can he not be like a normal nerd? He has the _potential_ to get somewhere in life, but no; you'd think he has some freaky bone condition or something because he can't be bothered to pick up a simple_ biro_.

Although he wasn't as lazy as he had been a few years back. I straightened him out pretty well. But there was still work-in-process.

"What's wrong now Ino?" he asked not even bothering to lift his eye lids.

That boy knew me to well so I just turned away from him trying to focus my attention else where. I would not let him win.

But, honestly, this class sucked entertainment wise I came to terms with as I searched around the large lab looking for someone _decent_ enough for me to socialize with. The future Mrs Uchiha had her head down scribbling what ever notes she could (why did she want a career involving blood and pain and _dead_ people?) while her other hand smacked Naruto on the back of his head, causing a shouting match on their side of the classroom. I couldn't blame Sakura for hitting him though, I mean, after so many years you think he'd notice Hinata's feelings by now, especially when the poor girl was sitting on the other side of him, her face flushed a deep red as he chatted excitedly to her about his "incredible summer." The entire class could hear their one-sided conversation.

Psh, and they say _I'm_ bad.

This class really did suck.

My curiosity, and the pressure of the awkwardness in the air, got the better of me and I abruptly whipped my head back to Shikamaru as my hair did this _incredibly sexy_ flip from the shoulder all my golden locks were resting on over to the other.

"Shikamaru you'd tell me if you were dating someone right?"

He sighed and lightly nodded his head once. "Ino, girls are too troublesome to be focusing on right now."

Son of a _bi-_ "Please don't tell me your-"

"Don't even go there Ino."

A wave of relief suddenly washed over me, even though I had kind of been joking about the whole homosexual thing I implied before I was _rudely_ interrupted.

"So you and _that_ girl in Sand high?"

"Temari?" He opened one eye and peered at me with a single dark orb, his lips pulling up into a small smirk. "I was only with her 'cause Naruto hangs out with her youngest brother. She's alright I suppose; you'd get on with her. She's almost as troublesome and as equally loud as you." The nerve of him. "But in that way? Nah, never going to happen, so calm down."

Thank God. I'd have his head if he was lying to me. But telling fibs to easy going Shikamaru is too troublesome for him. His honesty, one of the things I love most about him.

Before I could open my mouth and respond to his last comment, the bell rang and he stood up and lifted his bag (he had taken nothing out in the entire lesson).

"So..." my butt was still glued to the stool.

"Later Ino. See you around." With that he was walking out the door, sighing as Naruto slapped him on the back in a cheerful manor.

"You lazy bum! Get back here and listen to me when I'm talking to you!"

* * *

**I know it's been a while, but updates are going to be quite irregular due to school and stuff like that. But since its half term, I've had time to work on this. **

**Thanks to everyone who read the prologue, particularly those who took the time to review:**

_**WildCherryLollipop**__**, **__**WeHoldTheseTruths**__**, **__**La Mariposa3795**__**, **__**nerviouza**__**, **__**shelvesinthecloset**__**, **__**kiwi4me**_**and**_**jadedXelement**_

**And when I say football – I'm a Londoner so...**

**xx**

**SharinganAngel93. **


	3. past present future

**Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to be**

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_J u s t_ **K i s s** _M e_ **A l r e a d y**

* * *

**chapter 2:**

_**Past **_**present**_** future**_

_**surprise. surprise. surprise.**_

_six years old and the world is your oyster_

_no shades of grey_

_just colour_

_and friendships that will last _

**f o r e v e r**

"You're super special, Shika-kun!"

"_Shika-kun?"_

"C'mon, Daddy's gunna get us ice-cream!"

_& so she dragged me by the hand over to the ice-cream truck._

_My dad was right. I knew that much._

"_Troublesome girl..."_

* * *

Photo albums.

I mean who doesn't love them.

They come in all shapes, sizes and colours.

In fact you can even make them out of pretty ninety-nine pence scrapbooks and smother them in glitter glue and draw on them in cheap, free-gift magazine eyeliner that comes in all sorts of pretty colours and then...

"Who the fuck listens to this shit?"

"Shut up, Pig! Just because some people have no taste in music these days... that hurt you bitch!"

I giggled triumphantly after throwing my least favourite coffee stained pillow at Sakura.

"Well it serves you right for playing that crap that you call your favourite songs playlist on my speaker system!" I retorted as I switched the whole thing off at the mains. "Wasting my electricity like that." Then I felt another cushion collide with my face. Pissed, I reached for the popcorn bowl and threw a handful of the toffee coated treats at her head. But again I forgot her annoying dodging skills, remembering as only one bounced off the top of her head, the rest scattered across my cream carpet.

"Hey!" Of course Tenten had picked that moment to reach across our battlefield to grab some odd shade of green colouring pencil for her homework. I knew then that our little food fight would turn my almost sparkling clean abode into a pig sty. Because no one hits Tenten.

It's like the law of our friendship, or something like that.

And so all out war broke out between three silly teenagers. It was like we never grew up. Back when boys still were icky and dirty (although for some that word has a different meaning now) and were all made up of puppy dog tails or however it goes. And poor Hinata was stuck in the middle of it all.

* * *

I blew my ruffled hair out of my eyes only to have it fall back down covering my face again.

What a right bunch of tramps we must have looked like.

"Ino?" There came a muffled whisper from across my room.

"Yeah?" My own voice dripped with how worn out I was.

"You don't happen to have an ice pack or a bag of frozen peas, something really cold?"

"I didn't hit you that hard."

"Just keep telling yourself that."

"Get two please."

"Tenten! I expected better from you, you freaking weakling."

"Who's a weakling?!"

And then I was attacked again.

And poor Hinata was still stuck in the middle of it all.

Eventually, we did get back to making a new photo album, since the last one we made was now full to burst.

Holding up the finished cover, I smirked proudly.

"Now, lets fill this baby up!" I proclaimed.

"Yeah! I got all these awesome pictures and stuff over holidays so you didn't miss anything. Look." Sakura pulled a hand full of photographs out of her bag as we all huddled around her.

"See, here's Naruto making a fool out of himself while poor Hinata was being revived-" a small squeak interrupted her and we all looked up at the poor girl who had flushed a deep scarlet.

"And that's Sasuke-kun's hand blocking the lens, stupid anti-social bastard, and here's you Tenten with Neji making out on the pier!" Sakura giggled before the brunette smacked her on the arm.

"Sakura! Give me that now!"

"Why, so you can frame it and stare at it every night before you fall asleep?" Sakura snickered.

"N-no!" she replied all too quickly backing away from her, face red as we all laughed.

With her short attention span, Sakura flipped back to the rather large pile of pictures. "Sasuke's hand again, Lee-"

"Oh my God! What _is_ he _wearing_?" Horrible thoughts, horrible thoughts. We swore that day between ourselves to never tell what we saw.

"There is no pictures of Ino in any of these," Hinata pointed after we got over our 'little scare.'

_Oh damn_. Stupid bitches and their stupid vacation _together_. Cliché summer memories they would never forget. What did I have left to retain? A few killer hangovers, a snog with some random dude with curly dark locks and a Spanish accent (_yum_…) who's name I couldn't remember, a few missed calls from Dad and some spare change from the arcade along the beach.

For serious.

So what did I say to that?

"I'm too good for your photos."

I swam a river in Egypt (where they have very beautiful jewellery, by the way).

* * *

We grew up together.

For a long time it was just the three of us against the world - or the playpen at least.

Ino. Choji. Shikamaru.

That's the way the world worked. Then things messed up.

Mum and Dad couldn't stand the sight of each other, he moved out, mum met some other guy, and some other guy, and some other guy.

The boys stayed close, their families as tight as ever. We drifted apart. I'd occasionally see them when I spent weekends at my Dad's new place (he has the huge television. I swear it's the most beautiful inanimate object I've ever seen).

Eventually we all started going to the same school.

And we were an epic mismatched trio again.

* * *

Saturday afternoons at the local Starbucks were heaven to any teenage girl with problems.

Boy problems. "And then I was all, bitch _please, _we all know Juliet gets her man in the end."

Family problems. "So Daddy is out of town. Again. But he sort of, maybe, kind of, _accidentally, _forgot his credit card."

School problems. "That sucker is just angsting because he cant get laid, thus taking out his foul mood on his hard working students. _Moi_, for example. Tut, tut. He'll never move out of his mother's basement now." Plus on this one, you can chill out with your laptop and look a totally sophisticated university student working on some mega-important advanced psychology essay, when in fact you're subtly owning the computer at minesweeper.

But Shikamaru is not Sakura. And so, I'm stuck with the chess club's _potential _(how lazy can you get?) captain, not a fellow coffee drinking teenage girl. Only _that _coffee drinking teenage girl has a fine piece of man candy at her beck and call. I do not. Traitor.

Fml.

I mean, what ever happened to hoes before bros, and all that jazz?

Shikamaru tells me to calm down, its just high school.

Now I'm starting believe that Temari ditched him. I wouldn't blame her.

Seriously.

I need my girls.

"Hey Ino?" his voice is so relaxed and calm it doesn't seem like he's asking me a question. Guess when two people, such as ourselves, know each other inside out and back to front the way we do, you just _know_.

You just know what whisks through the other's mind, before they themselves realise it. You know what makes them snap, what makes them cry, what makes them shout, scream, breathe, live.

I've known Shikamaru my whole life. He's he one constant support I've always had, my shoulder to cry on, the hand to hold when you get that feeling in the pit of your empty stomach when you're dying for _something _to grasp onto, the trunk to my tree, the earth to my sky.

Shikamaru doesn't judge. He has no reason too.

When I was six, I thought he was something miraculous, special. Back when my world was crumpling to the ground, he was always there.

We'd build sandcastles on the beach and laugh a laugh of innocence and freedom as it melted between our fingertips.

We defended each others faults and imperfections when those brats who tried to bully Chouji attempted to pit us against each other - a lifetime ago.

I do not know if there is a God out there, some necessary deity upon which we are dependent. But with Shikamaru, I've always felt something relatively similar to contingency.

I need him.

Always have and apart of me always will, no matter what the future throws at us.

* * *

**I'm terrible. I haven't updated this in so long.**

**Thank you to all those who reviewed and everything else. I love you guys. **


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